WINNERS AND LOSERS: In the second quarter, the landline phone industry lost broadband subscribers for the first time. Cable companies continued to gain, thanks to higher speeds.
DISADVANTAGE: Phone lines, designed to carry conversations, and often decades old, are poorly suited to carry Internet signals compared with the heavily shielded cables that carry TV signals.
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THE NUMBERS: The eight largest phone companies in the U.S. collectively lost 70,000 broadband subscribers. AT&T accounted for the bulk of the loss — 96,000 subscribers — while other companies on average added a few thousand subscribers. The top four public cable companies gained 290,000.
